I want to talk a bit about my last vacation. I don't have any friends and in the city I live noone talks to men who are alone (it is socially stigmatized) so I have to wait a whole year for a few weeks of vacation so I can socialize a bit.

I am poor so I stay at campsites. There are upsides and downsides to this. I am around people all the time but most of them are from my own country so again the regular rules apply.

Almost all people there come in groups of friends. They make new acquaintances easily, but the interaction is always group to group.

Women campers were very rude towards me. I say this because every time they passed me by, they would turn their head to avoid eye-contact. The turning of the head away from someone is a very deliberate and very rude gesture.

One time I was in the kitchen and a girl was talking to her friends about needing some iodine for a cut. They said someone in the camp must have some iodine. I like helping people so I said I have some. The girl showed me her cut and asked if it looked serious.

I went to get the iodine but as I returned with it she was leaving and avoided eye-contact so I wouldn't talk to her. I was confused.

In many other situations girls asked me for help with setting up their tent. They were friendly while I helped them but afterwards they never said hi when I saw them.

In another incident I was exercising and a girl walked passed me and smiled for a second. The next day I saw her again at the same place practicing a dance routine. This was my chance I thought. When she finished her routine I complimented her performance. We exchanged names and I said I'd come see her perform (she was a street artist).

A couple of days later I saw her at the beach. I said hi. She also said hi. I asked her how she'd been and she answered politely but seemed disinterested to chat. I saw her again a couple of times the following days but we didn't greet each other.

After being constantly ignored and treated impolitely, I decided not to help women again. When a girl asked me to help her carry her tent, I said I'm sorry but I'm busy right now. This felt good.

Unfortunately I did not stick to my decision.

A few days later I helped a couple of women at the beach when the wind overturned their sun ombrellas. We chatted a bit about our vacations. They asked me my name I said we'd talk again on the boat that would take us back from the beach.

I saw them again at the port and they passed in front of me pretending they didn't see me. On the boat I nodded and say hi. One of them looked away as if I had said something shameful. The other said hello in a strange tone, as if it was weird that I greeted them.

I wasn't expecting that we'd sit together and chat, but if you're asking someone's name an hour ago, it's only polite that you say hi when you see them again.

On another occasion a girl I didn't know greeted me when I entered the kitchen to cook something, and offered me a cookie. This was strange and unprecedented. Many people come and go in the kitchen, they're not offered cookies. She was friendly and was smiling but I didn't feel a flirty vibe. I still don't understand her motivation. We chatted a bit, then she left and I chatted with her friend who had a more neutral demeanor. The next day when I saw her again we just said hi, and then the next day we didn't bother to greet each other.

During my two weeks of vacation I would see guys hitting up girls every day and going out with them at night. Sometimes I even saw girls go sit next to guys and chat them up. So many groups of singles looking to meet other groups of singles.

I on the other hand had mostly negative interactions that made me feel depressed and unwanted and even guilty that women felt displeased by my presence. I learned to avoid eye contact when a woman walked by me so as to appear harmless.

My only really positive interactions with women were with foreign tourists. Women from France, Italy and Belgium. Not only were they polite, they gave off good vibes and made me happy to talk to them.

But I really didn't know how to take things further with them even when it looked like they were flirting with me.

In previous instances even when there was a positive interaction initially, it quickly turned into nothing. How could I be sure these foreign women liked me?

And how early in a conversation can I ask a woman to go out with me in a setting like that? Won't it seem like the conversation was a pretext?

When I imagine myself asking them that, it looks bad.